Mystery Meat

Now what? So you have all this leftover meat...what are you going to do with it? Keep topping it with gravy? Freeze it? Throw it away without telling anyone? (Especially your friends who actually believe in not wasting food.) You really should do something with it before it becomes unrecognizable, a.k.a. "mystery meat". I'm sure you could find a-million-plus recipes online for ways to use your not-so-precious leftovers, but wouldn't you rather get recipes from a trusted friend? I thought so. Here are a few of mine. I would love to get a few of yours also!

TURKEY WILD RICE SOUP
Ingredients:
30-ish oz. chicken broth (it really doesn't need to be exact)
2 c. water
1/2 c. uncooked rice (wild, if you have it; whatever, if you don't--don't you already love this recipe?)
1/2 c. chopped green onions (or regular onions)
1/2 c. butter (or margarine, if you like it--we can talk about that later...)
3/4 c. flour
salt and pepper
1/4 t. poultry seasoning
2 c. milk (if you didn't gain any weight on Dec. 25, you could use half-and-half, otherwise, milk works great)
3-6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled (optional)
Bite-size pieces of leftover turkey, whatever amount you want

In a soup pot, combine broth, water, rice, and onions. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer 25-30 minutes. Meanwhile, melt butter in a medium saucepan. Stir in flour, salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning. Continue stirring for a few minutes until smooth. Stir in milk and cook until thickened, stirring constantly. Add milk mixture to broth mixture. Stir. Then add bacon and turkey. Heat and stir for another 10 minutes or so. Serve.

TURKEY POT PIE
Ingredients:
Double pie crust (you can also make it with just one, see below)
2 cans cream of potato soup
1 and 1/4 c. milk
1 can mixed vegetables (or use leftover ones you have on hand)
1/4 to 1/2 c. frozen peas, thawed
1 c. (or more) cooked turkey

Lay one pie crust in pie plate. Combine all other ingredients and pour into crust. Top with the other crust, seal, cut a few slits in top, and bake about 1 hour at 350 degrees. OPTIONAL: Lightly grease pie plate, pour ingredient mixture directly into pie plate and top with one crust. Wrap edges of crust over lip of plate to seal, cut a few slits, and bake as above.

My favorite pie crust recipe:
Combine 2 1/2 c. flour and 1 t. salt in a large bowl. Cut 1 c. shortening into flour mixture using pastry cutter. In a small bowl, use a fork to beat together 1/4 c. water and 1 egg. Add egg mixture to flour mixture and stir together. Use hands to form into 2 balls of dough. Roll each ball out to 1/8 inch thick and use as desired.

CRUSTLESS BROCCOLI-HAM QUICHE (Versatile, easy, delicious, and low-fat--what more could you want?)
Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 can evaporated milk (skim is fine)
3 T. flour
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 t. dry mustard (optional)
3/4 c. shredded cheddar or swiss (or whatever)
1 c. chopped cooked ham
1 c. small broccoli florets, cooked but still firm
(You can use bacon instead of ham, and cooked mushrooms are great in the quiche; so is chopped fresh basil.)

Whisk together eggs and milk in a medium bowl. Whisk in flour and seasonings. Gently stir in cheese, ham, and broccoli. Pour into greased 8x8-inch baking dish and bake at 350 for about 40 minutes or until quiche is set. Let rest for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Hope these are useful. And I guess let's not forget to be thankful for all this excess food. There really are starving people in many parts of the world, just like Mom said.

Counterfeit Goodies: We're rolling in dough

Our generous neighbors and friends have been carrying out the thoughtful holiday tradition of delivering plates, bags, and tins of scrumptious goodies to wish us a Merry Christmas. These have been much appreciated and devoured almost instantaneously. But now I'm feeling just a smidgen of guilt. No, not over fat and calories. That will come later.

A few years ago, a neighbor brought us a cute little bucket with a lid and handle, filled with frozen balls of cookie dough, ready to place on the cookie sheet and throw in the oven. She said, "Everyone gets too many treats all at once during the holidays. This way, when all the goodies are gone and you actually want some again, you can pull this out of the freezer and just pop them in the oven."

Brilliant! I loved it! Not only did I love the cookies and having them when I wanted them, but I loved the ease of it for the giver. She didn't have to bake them, cool them, arrange them on the plate, etc. No. Just hand them over and let the other person do all that. Like I said--brilliant!

This year, we took it to a higher level. Well, really a lower level. We didn't even make the little balls. We just rolled up the cookie dough in wax paper, put it in a freezer bag, and wrapped it in tissue paper. Voila! Here are your goodies. All I did was make and roll the dough. For 24 hours, it felt like I was in a Pillsbury Bake-off, but then it was done. No cookie sheets and cooling racks to clean. No festive plates or containers required. But now that the deed is done, I feel a little bit sheepish. "Hi. We wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas, but we didn't really want to do anything for you, so YOU can do the baking. Have a happy holiday!" Kind of lame. Sort of a cop-out. Somewhat Scrooge-ish. Yet...brilliant!

Should I feel guilty?

Space: The Final Frontier

These are the voyages of the starship Natalie, her continuing mission...to finish the basement.

I've been waiting for this day since we moved into this house. The day I could call out those magical words, "Boys! Go down in the basement!" For some unknown reason, they did not want to go down there until it was finished. They could have skate-boarded around on the cement, played with sidewalk chalk, made a secret hideout, the possibilities were endless. Now that there's brand new carpet, they're excited to boldly go where no one has gone before...

It's a perfect play area, because it's empty space. After essentially keeping "the basement guy" on retainer for several months, we won't be able to afford furniture for quite awhile. BUT--who needs furniture when you have bins! Take a look at my new storage room:

One side is for bins, the other is for food storage. Look at the beautiful shelves! Sometimes I go down there and just stand and stare. I think I'm in love.

Oh, and here's the bathroom. It's now the nicest bathroom in the house and no one ever uses it. Not that I mind. I don't need another bathroom to keep clean.

And here's the new guest room. It turned out more spacious than I ever thought it would be.

And the final final frontier--the little "kitchenette", which will be used for art projects and maybe eventually snacks (someday when food is allowed in the basement).

So, TA-DA! Our finished basement. So exciting!

The Disease

It's my mother's fault. Of course.

My mom creates Christmas tree masterpieces. Each tree has a theme and looks like a picture from a classy magazine. She adds the perfect number of lights and spaces the ornaments just so. They're works of art. The downside? No one else is allowed to help in any way, shape, or form. There is a no-touch zone extending 3 feet out from the tree in all directions.

Sorry, Mom. I'm going public...
When we were children, she would pretend to let us decorate the tree. We'd get out all the ornaments and choose our favorites and carefully place them exactly where we liked them. (Colored lights, tinsel, and anything else remotely gaudy were strictly taboo.) THEN, she would send us over to Grandma's house to decorate Grandma's tree. While we were gone, she would rearrange all our ornaments and put the ugly ones near the back. (Meanwhile, at Grandma's, we could put tinsel and as many ugly ornaments as we wanted, all on the same branch, and they would be left there for the whole Christmas season.)

I remember being mildly offended by my mom's re-decorating practices, but as an adult, I have discovered that this condition is hereditary. My sister and I call it "mom's disease". As grown-ups, we both were surprised to find ourselves coming up with tree themes nearly a year in advance. We would take down the Christmas tree and already be thinking, "Next year, I'm going to do a snow theme on the tree." Then we'd head off to the after-Christmas sales and purchase the needed items for that theme. I know, it's pathetic.

The thing is, my mom was right. I am much happier with the tree when it's decorated "properly". My way of solving this is to have two trees. The one in the top photo is mine. Hard to tell in the picture, but this year's tree is decorated in sort of an "old-fashioned fruits of the season" theme. It has cranberries, candied fruits, candle-lights and gold and cranberry ball ornaments. Below is the kids' tree. They can choose white or colored lights. And they can put whatever they want on it. Almost. It turns out I hate tinsel as much as my mom does. I will admit to a bit of adjustment in ornament positions, but not much because the spacing was already pretty good. So, they are being trained well. They will most likely not be immune to the disease.
Sadly, I think I have offended my children as well when it comes to Christmas trees. Nathan begs every year to put one or more of his own ornaments on "the good tree" (you know, the one in the living room that everyone sees, MY tree). I consented this year to having him hang his fish ornament on my tree. But only because it's dark brown and blends in. I might have to adjust it later, though.